Sunday, December 4, 2011

stress? what's that?

NBCCD has officially entered Finals Season. But for the first time ever, I'm not stressed. Usually by this point I'm stressed about final assignments, and (in the case of FVA) exams. But not this time. I know what I'm doing. And I don't have much homework.

Monday: This week, the overall feeling from the teachers was, "you've learned all I have to teach you for this course," and it was especially prevalent in the Monday classes. This weeks' assignments are to tweak the business plan and write an update on our mentors. Next week we'll hand in the final version of the B. plan, and by that point it should be good enough that we could walk down the street to somewhere like the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), and apply for a loan.

In Output, our final assignment is to pick a wall in the NBCCD gallery and lay out a show on that wall. That includes a heck of a lot of measuring, and dealing with the fact that the floor in that gallery isn't even. I've done the assignment already (it isn't due until next week, a.k.a. the end of term), and it wasn't the evenness (or lack thereof) of the floor that drove me nuts--it was the amount of space between each photo. I wanted to get them exactly even, so I positioned the two end-photos--and then did battle with the ones in between, moving them back and forth and using the Ruler Tool to measure the distance between each one. Grrr... I finally got the measurements to be the same, and then started in on the distance between the floor and the photos, which only took a couple minutes.

One of the things I love about NBCCD is how much the college focuses on the "real world". If I apply for a show (and I will at some point), this is what I'm going to have to deal with.

Tuesday: That day was one of my laziest ever. I don't know how I did it, but somehow I managed to get off my butt at about five that evening and over to the college, where I did some work (starting the final report for my current independent study project, getting the last model release from Dance Fredericton, and starting the mentor update for the business class) before heading back to my dorm.

Wednesday: We're pretty much done in Photoshop, and I spent most of the three hours working on my independent study project for that class. We have another week in which to work on the projects, but I'm pretty much done. I'm going to show mine to Drew this week, and see if he has any suggestions on how to make it better. I admit that I'm loving this project--and it's a good way to put some of the anger that I feel towards the current government to use. And get school credit for it.

And we're pretty much done in Lighting, too. We spent part of the class having our work critiqued--and then Drew spent the rest of it untangling a box of cords and random stuff that's usually in the studio, and putting it all to rights.

Thursday: Thursdays and Fridays are usually my most productive days of the week, and this week was no different. Preparing for Professional Life homework: done. Output homework: done.

I also went to the first of two openings: Rooted/Uprooted by Linda Kelly, and Miramichi, 1953 by Rachael Flett. Both were in the Annex Gallery in the Playhouse, and both were amazing. Linda was my History Tutorial teacher in first semester FVA, and Rachael graduated from the photography program this past June. Rachael's now living in Calgary, AB, so she couldn't be at the opening. Karen and Peter spoke in the wing where Rachael's show is hanging. And then we all went across to the other wing, where Linda spoke about her work.

Friday: Another ridiculously productive day. I began preparing to print my independent study project, and stocked up on print credits and got a portfolio for the final photos.

And I did yet more homework.

And went to another opening. This one was at NBCCD's gallery. It's an alumni show, titled Illusion, and it's centred around fashion. Miniaturized fashion.

I also said good-bye to Tom's Nikon. I'm probably going to go with Canon for my next camera (better optics and sensor, and as I don't put my cameras through a lot, I don't need the best-sealed cam on the block), but I got a taste of life with a higher-quality camera than mine. And I loved it.

Saturday: The first Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast of the year! Which meant that I planned my entire day around the performance. And that meant that I had to be at the school by 1:30 PM (12:30 EST) at the latest. CBC's over-the-air reception is the pits here in NB, so I usually listen to the broadcast on my computer.

The first broadcast was Rodelinda by Handel, with Renée Fleming in the title role. I'm not the biggest fan of Baroque opera, but this one wasn't bad. I liked it a lot better than Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck). Next week's opera is Faust, by Charles Gounod, which I'm really looking forward to.

And I found out that Maestro Levine will not be conducting some of the performances of the Ring Cycle this season, due to a fall while on vacation. He'll be back on the podium starting next month, but the Met's principal guest conductor, Maestro Fabio Luisi, was elevated to principal conductor and has taken on some of Maestro Levine's performances. Maestro Levine will conduct one performance of Götterdämmerung (April twenty-fourth), though he's conducting the other three Ring operas.

In amongst all this opera, I also managed to do a shoot for my last independent lighting assignment. This time, I worked with everything that I had yet to use. Or almost everything--as the Speedatrons and I are enemies right now (they still refuse to slave), and the snoot that the school's studio has is meant for that system, I wasn't able to try it out. However, even just turning on the modelling light taught me a lot: turns out, the snoot focuses the light on one spot.

Sunday: I'd hoped to print a test for my big independent project (the dance one) today, but the printer's loaded with matte paper, and I have no idea where the lustre paper's disappeared to. I've decided to move printing to Tuesday.

Right now, I don't have much homework, so I haven't done much that could pass for "productive" today. However, I went through the photos that I shot yesterday, and picked out the ten best. I'll probably put my notes in a Word document later this evening or tomorrow evening.

And I have to print off stuff for Preparing for Professional Life, which can be a minor pain when you're used to submitting everything digitally (thanks, Photo Studio!).

I can't believe tomorrow will be the last three-class day of the year. I love all three classes, but still--YIPPEEEEEE for the fact that tomorrow is the last time I have to slog through nine hours of classes this year!

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About Me

Annapurna Moffatt is a photographer living on St. David Ridge, in southwest New Brunswick. She holds a diploma in photography from the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design in Fredericton, where she explored and experimented with urban photography and discovered a passion for dance photography, and a BFA in photography from NSCAD University in Halifax, where she focused specifically on artistic photography and pushing herself to the limit.